Caribbean Sunset

Fun With Towels!

Mom and I decided to hit the towel folding class on our last day at sea. We loved the towel creatures we found in our room each night and wanted to learn more. It was fun. We learned how to make a pig, a swan, and a dog. My pig did not turn out well, but Mom's did! Super Cute!

The Queen's Staircase

The Queen's Staircase is Nassau is an amazing place! It is so beautiful and yet it was created under great hardship. The 65 stairs were carved by slaves into the limestone with only axes and hand tools in 1793 & 1794 to commemorate the 65 years of Queen Victoria's reign.

Pirates of the Caribbean!

The next stop on our tour of Nassau was Fort Fincastle. It was built to protect England's investments there and, although it never saw any real battles it was necessary none the less as a deterrent against those marauding pirates! It did not seem like a comfortable place to live though! I loved the view of the ships in the harbor and the color of the water- amazing!

More from the Gardens...

The Gardens are also home to a lorikeet enclosure where you can feed the birds. They have this at the Oregon Zoo also and my mom and I both love it! The birds are so pretty and it's so fun having them come right to you. After we fed the birds we toured the rest of the zoo with my favorite exhibit being the jaguars. Beautiful! I wished we could have had more time here but we had to head out to see the rest of Nassau's sites before we headed back to the ship.

Ardastra Gardens

Our final stop on the cruise was Nassau, Bahamas. We also chose to take a tour of the city which included a fort and the local zoo. Here we are at the Ardastra Gardens, Zoo, and Conservation Center. The Gardens are famous for their trained flamingo show. It sounded fun to me. The birds really follow directions like left face and right face, stop, and march and they respond to a whistle. It was pretty cute and the birds are so tall. Part of the show was audience participation. A lot of little children were volunteering so I sat back even though I wanted to participate. When none of the children in our section volunteered I went ahead and ran out there. The premise is that you have to stand on one foot and pretend to be the prettiest flamingo. If you're not doing a good job a flamingo will come and tap you on the shoulder. Very cute. I got tapped before we even began! It was really fun and the birds were so pretty!

Freeport, Bahamas

From Key West we travelled to Freeport, Bahamas. We chose a shore excursion that included a tour of the island and a snorkeling stop. It was a beautiful day and we learned all about the history of the island and the people there. The seas were a little rough for snorkeling but still very beautiful. I was just very worn out after the long swim. When you're out there you don't realize how far you have swam out from the beach and it seems so relaxing you don't realize you're swimming a lot. Our snorkeling guide was very young and very fit and several people gave up and headed back to the beach. It was totally worth is as I saw a very large sea turtle, and an enormous ray along with all the other colorful corals, fish, starfish and other creatures. I love snorkeling and can't wait to do it again!